Super Paper Maren
by LordBlumiere
Summary: [Crossover between NiGHTS and Super Paper Mario] Blumiere's dreams have become troubling as of late. He suspects a certain jester of causing it, but little does he know that he's suspecting the wrong jester. [AUish and some OOCness.]
1. Prologue: What to do?

Thank you all for being so patient with poor me! (bleck smile) The main computer in our house was blocking this website through Norton. But today I get a laptop, and voila! my dad unblocks it for me. (jackle smile) Anyways, please read and enjoy this (very short) prologue to SPMaren.

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What to do in a nightmare?

It's the age-old question I guess. I may not have been around at the beginning of time but I have a sneaking feeling that people have been asking that since then.

Wait a second, lemme back up. My name is Blumiere. Most of you might better know me as what I was before, Count Bleck. Fortunately though, those days are over. My thankfulness for this is absolutely eternal. Timpani, my love, is only one of the people I have to thank. The heroes also deserve my undying thanks. At the moment, however, it's not what is important.

What is important now is the question I asked right as you began this text. What to do in a nightmare? I can't very well awaken from them as fast as I used to. And I can't tell anyone about these horrible visions and the horrible pain. Sometimes, I wonder, however. Are our dreams as real as our 'real life'? Or are they even more real?

Yet, I have this strange feeling that soon I will find the answers.

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Please review! (hugs... then digs claws in) _Persuasion techniques, you know. Have to keep the dreamers on their toes._


	2. Chapter One: The First Nightmare

Thank you for the review, LazloTitan-sama. As you will see in this chapter, what you hoped is true!

This is chapter one! This chapter makes me happy because it introduces key characters. It also makes me happy because it is the first nightmare. :D

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"iere...umiere...Blumiere! Wake up!"

Blumiere shot upwards, knocking Timpani onto her back. He groaned, rubbed his head, and then looked at Timpani.

"Um...sorry."

Timpani laughed and grabbed onto Blumiere's hand. "No trouble," she said, "I've always been a bit of a klutz anyways. Say..." She looked with her big green curious eyes up at Blumiere. "You didn't seem to be having the greatest of dreams... is something wrong?"

Blumiere froze up immediately at the question. "No... nothing. Don't worry, Timpani, it's all alright. It's alright. My dream was just a bit... odd, that's all." But in his mind and heart, he knew he was lying.

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It had started as a good enough dream. Maybe a bit weird, but then again most of Blumiere's dreams had been ever since he had turned from being the Count into his true self again. He'd been idly walking through a place that looked like a cross between a museum and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, when altogether too suddenly he was knocked onto his back and felt something being tugged out of him. He screamed and he shouted, but to no avail. Whatever the thing was, it had been tugged out. And whatever the thing was, it seemed to have been pertinent to his good enough dream, for moments later he was in the dark and all he could hear was laughing.

"Ehehehehehehe... ehehehehe..."

It somehow struck fear into Blumiere, a sensation he hadn't felt in a very long time. He felt around, trying to find a way out, anything that could get him out of this nightmare, but to no avail. Suddenly, something had hit him right on the back of his neck and dug in like a razorblade. He yelled again and reached behind him, then pulled whatever it was out of his neck. As he looked down at the thing, his vision began to blur, and he had woken up.

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"Well, I'm glad that it wasn't a bad dream," noted Timpani. "Come on, you'd better get something to drink. You look a bit pale." And as Blumiere and Timpani walked together towards the stream by the tree, Blumiere couldn't help but to wonder who was laughing that laugh that sounded familiar, and what that thing was that had hit him.

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Please review! (smiles evilly)


	3. Chapter Two: Pandemic!

Yay! Chapter two. (evil grin) Nightmares are becoming bad. (Sadly I haven't had a good nightmare in over a month. Sigh.)

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Blumiere splashed the cool water onto his face. He took a short sip from his hands and put the rest back into the stream. Looking up at Timpani, he smiled very softly. He didn't want her to suspect that anything was wrong. He didn't want to worry her so soon after they'd gotten to their special place, the place where nothing was supposed to harm them or hinder them. A place where they could be free. Blumiere knew the instant he thought that; he wasn't free. He was captured in his thoughts about the nightmare he had. He didn't notice Timpani shaking him.

"Blumiere! Are you okay?" Her voice was persistent and worried. Blumiere slowly turned to look at Timpani, and he shook his head.

"I told you... I'm fine..."

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"Hey... um, wake up...!"

"Ach-!"

Nastasia continued to shake the large figure on the bed until he finally rose his head, eyes showing something more behind. O'Chunks rose up in a kind of panic Nastasia hadn't seen him in since they'd first met and O'Chunks had been suffering from war aftershock. "Um, are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep," Nastasia said, pushing up her glasses slightly. "Um, Mimi's been wanting to see you, 'k? She's in the kitchen." Nastasia watched as the usually-smiling O'Chunks padded off to the kitchen in a daze, without a smile on his face or a twinkle in his eyes. She thought, worriedly, about what in the worlds might be happening...

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It was a worlds wide pandemic. People were waking up screaming, begging for their lives, or covering their ears as if to block out a horrible noise that sounded like bad opera singing. Some people rushed to the hospital for medical treatment, only to find that there were no scars on them whatsoever. There were people who told stories of frightening dragon-fish things. Some went so far as to say they'd seen a man with six hands and six eyes--right in the palms of his hands. And everyone, but everyone, told of horrible screams and the feeling that all their good dreams were being torn away from them. It was as if dreams--no, nightmares, were becoming real.

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Please review! (throws cards)


	4. Chapter Three: King of Clubs

Thank you to all the reviewers!

**LazloTitan:** It's in the future. Even sort of at the last part of this chapter...

**Princess of Flames: **Here's the update! XD

**mataulvr:** YAAAAAA! Torture! (smile) Imma not gonna answer that question tho, until I reveal... dun dun dun... THA TRUTH. Which will be soon. (And yes my life is based off a true story too.)

Thank you all for being so patient! Hope you like this chaaaapter!

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Blumiere stared blankly into the distance. All was black and dark. He could barely see his own fingers when he put them in front of his face. And he was scared, which was saying something, since he'd lived in Castle Bleck for any number of years where it was always black and dark. He looked around again and again. Still nothing. Finally giving up, he sat down on the--black--floor. Blumiere prodded the floor, not expecting anything to happen. But something did. A pack of cards appeared on the floor--an unopened pack labeled in an odd language. Because he had nothing better really to do, Blumiere picked up the pack of cards and tore the sticker off that was keeping the pack closed. He idly started to pull out a card, but quite suddenly...

"OW!" Blumiere shouted, waving his hand and dropping the card to the ground. It looked like a plain old ordinary King of Clubs at first, but as Blumiere stared, the differences became apparent. First of all, the picture on the card didn't look anything like a king--it was a hand with an eye in the freakin' centre! And second of all, the sides of the cards were razor sharp. In fact, they more or less were razors. Blumiere growled. Again he was having a nightmare--and funnily enough, he could feel the cut from the card as if he was awake.

"Ehehehehehehe..."

...He heard laughing all around him, and he forced himself awake.

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"Hey!"

The 7 foot tall, caped, nearly invisible person turned around, holding a pack of cards in his hand.

"What?"

"He said you have to go collect more from the dreamers who haven't lost them yet! Geez, did you really think you could get away with slacking? Besides, he damn well isn't in a good mood right now, so you'd better get to work. Or you know that he'll end up torturing you--and me for being the messenger."

The smile on the nearly invisible one's face grew wider.

Showtime.

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Mimi sat, shaking slightly, in the kitchen. Her face was a paler green than normally, and she felt as if she was going to be sick. The nightmare she'd had the night before made her think that dreams were a lot more real than anyone thought. Because of this nightmare, she'd not bothered to comb her hair or even get changed for that matter. All night, someone had been whispering into her ear; whispering that she was not good enough, she was not beautiful, her skin was a horrible shade... all the degrading things that she could think of. She had whispered 'stop' at first, but finally she broke down. And the voice had told her that if she would only give away the energy that gave her good dreams (Mimi had no idea what the voice even meant), she could be beautiful. Mimi had awoken screaming and shaking in fear--she didn't understand why it had happened, and she was actually beginning to believe it.

Was she really that worthless...?

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Please review! (Puss in Boots eyes)


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